This invention relates generally to electrical connectors and more specifically to electrical connectors which are equipped with a shorting clip which automatically shunts terminals in the electrical connector when it is disconnected from a mating electrical connector.
Packard Electric Division of General Motors Corporation produces a two way electrical female connector which has a shorting clip which is housed in a plug connector body. The shorting clip is a bent wire which has a generally U-shaped body which is mounted in a slot above a pair of laterally spaced terminal cavities. The bent wire shorting clip includes two depending legs at the respective ends of the U-shaped body. These depending legs engage the sides of the respective female terminals which are disposed in terminal cavities of the plug connector body.
The mating electrical male connector has a socket connector body which includes a converging slot at its mating end. The depending legs of the wire shorting clip are squeezed together and disengaged from the sides of the female terminals by the converging slot when the female connector is plugged into the male connector. The plug connector body of the female connector is also equipped with an external lock arm which secures the female connector to the mating male connector.
While the present electrical connector is suitable for many applications, there are other applications where the present electrical connector is too large. For example, an air restraint system which has an inflatable air bag in a steering wheel requires a wiring harness which is capable of being threaded through the steering column. An electrical connector for the end of such a wiring harness has stringent size requirements in order for the electrical connector to pass through the tight spaces inside the steering column. Such stringent size requirements cannot be met by known prior art electrical connectors with shorting clips such as that discussed above. Consequently, electrical connectors are presently attached after the wiring harness has been threaded through the steering column which is a costly and inefficient assembly operation.